Abstract

Chronic pain is a common problem among elderly people. Proper self-management of chronic pain is crucial in promoting general well-being; however, elderly people who live in Thai rural communities have limited access to self-management resources. Understanding the way these people self-manage chronic pain within their life context will provide guidance on how to support them to achieve effective self-management, which in turn, enhances their well-being. The broad aim of the study was to describe and understand the ways in which elderly people, aged 60 years or over, who lived in rural communities in north-east Thailand, self-managed their chronic pain. The specific objectives were to: examine the strategies that they used to self-manage their chronic pain; identify the factors that moderated the way they self-managed their chronic pain; develop a substantive theory that explained the experience of self-managing chronic pain; and evaluate the developed theory within the context of current literature in the area.